With a turnover increase of 24.3% to over €361m (and €30m in profit) between 2022 and 2023, McLaren is undoubtedly one of the most successful Formula 1 teams of recent times.
The Woking outfit was the only major Formula 1 team to steer clear of development hurdles in 2024 which contributed to them winning the FIA Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship. These feats – and many others by the revered team – didn’t happen by chance.
McLaren boasts tremendous development teams, stellar actors, and exciting supercars that place it at the vanguard of sports racing globally. Here’s exploring the top reasons behind the rapid growth of the McLaren Formula 1 team.
Decades of dogged commitment to excellence
‘‘To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one’s ability, for I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone.” – Bruce McLaren, founder of the eponymous team.
Like many excellent adventures, the story of McLaren’s feats dates back to its roots. In 1963, Bruce McLaren founded the Formula 1 constructor, rolling out the McLaren MIA as its debut product. Afterward, the M1B emerged and joined the Can-Am Championship to kick-start progressive years of successful races, teams, and seasons.
While McLaren may have been founded by a New Zealander, and originally set up in a small workshop in Colnbrook near Heathrow in the United Kingdom the whole operation has now metamorphosed into a global automotive brand. Indeed the company has now successfully developed a sister company making highly sort after luxury high performance super cars.
Perhaps one of the best signs of the brand’s commitment to excellence is its stellar rise in less than two years after abysmal performances (by McLaren’s high standards) between 2021 and 2022. After the team fell from third in the standings in 2020 to fourth in 2021 and fifth in 2022, the franchise overhauled its technical department, bringing in a new team principal, Andrea Stella.
After optimizing the Formula 1 team’s structure and organogram in 2022, it wasn’t long before McLaren’s drivers returned to the podium with consistent celebrations. Of course, Stella got much credit for the victories.
High-powered data management systems
Ed Green was the head of Commercial Technology at McLaren Racing until late last year and managed the firm’s data. Meanwhile, the brand recently partnered with Dropbox in a multi-year deal, marking the latter’s first entry into Formula 1. Green was excited about the partnership and believed it could broaden the team’s success going forward, which it did.
Speaking to Dropbox’s media team at the time, Green shared insights on how data gave McLaren a competitive advantage. According to Green, the computational field dynamics technology has influenced the franchise’s car development to most.
About 90% of McLaren’s vehicle development begins in a digital format. Once the team successfully captures as much race data as possible, they’re ready to drive better results on the track. The team also leverages data analytics to improve its standing. In technical terms, we’re talking about finding the tenth of seconds that separates winners from losers.
The technocrat also hailed the support of AI in helping the team become more efficient with managing its large data-point base.
“AI can make us more efficient as humans, support us in scaling the challenges we face, and solve really complicated problems,” explained Green at the time. “With 200 million data points, we can’t get through all that as a race team. AI helps break down that data and provides additional insights, almost acting as an additional engineer or team member.”
Leveraging real-time data, despite challenges
It should also highlighted that the team’s extraordinary task of making very high-pressure decisions about whether to change tires or stay out during a safety car incident is assisted by various AI applications. This helps the team to make decisions about numerous timing deltas, consider the speed of other vehicles, the changing pace of the race plus more.
While humans are still at the centre of this decision-making process, they’re supported by simulations and AI tools that help predict the future of events. However, this also isn’t without challenges like heat and humidity at some of circuits that Formula 1 races at.
Even McLaren’s mobile data centres have rare features like wheels – which many other data centres don’t have but they need these to circumvent sometimes conditions and awry of bandwidth connections that exist in some of the team garages at these circuits.
What stands McLaren apart from the competition
McLaren’s ambitious use of technology is perhaps one of its greatest strengths. The brand focuses on its tech stack, driving processes forward to match its ideals in a way that gets the sporting world talking.
Another top feature that readily stands the team apart is its ability to quickly implement decisions. But McLaren’s culture also transcends exploring new technologies to delivering results for the teams. The brand strives to drive efficiency and deliver performance for its team to win the FIA Constructors’ Championship last year.
Motorsports betting tips: Insights from MightyTips
Meanwhile, some of the most dedicated Formula 1 and McLaren fans go beyond watching the race tracks to following the events and placing wagers on them at the sportsbooks. But if you want to explore all the available resources, you need to further improve your knowledge before placing bets.
You can check trusted review platforms or follow tipsters such as Kate Richardson to discover free tips that can help you make smarter bets. Also, if you’re wondering how pro bettors make the best of their wagers on Formula 1 and other motorsports, here are a few heads-up to get you started:
- When wagering over motorsport events, always watch the races involved.
- Monitor the tracks, look up previous races, consider recent driver form, and be on the lookout for reasonable odds.
- You may also consider a betting strategy, particularly if there are plenty of wagers to spread your funds over.
- Leverage bonuses to your advantage.
With these, you’re closer to succeeding at betting on motorsports.
Conclusion
Amidst a highly competitive environment, McLaren has discovered a way to exploit data to their advantage – like no other team. Even more, their mastery of managing human resources has helped them to effectively pool all resources towards rebuilding the team back into the era where they dominated Formula 1 all levels and race circuits.
